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Poetry

QUEST

In my quest
I have

Trawled wide oceans
with fine gauge fishing net
Hung fly paper
the size of double sheets from the trees
Grown bacteria on
a swimming pool petri dish
Scoured the Encyclopaedia Britannica
volumes A-Z
Tested DNA
from a million people
Searched four and a half decades of
what is called my soul

Each endeavour
methodically approached,
meticulously recorded
Every result
negative

But I am still looking
I want the word to name
our particular sorrow
To tell my sister, my mother
and my mother’s mother